In the book “La religione primitiva in Sardegna” (1912), Raffaele Pettazzoni, the foremost Italian historian of religions, wrote: “What was the purpose of incubation? That for the Sardinians it was a therapeutic purpose is explicitly stated by another commentator of Aristotle, Filipono; and he adds that they lay near the tombs for five days: Aristotle, in fact, cited the example, for him legendary, of the Sardinians as typical of a sleep so deep that it took away every consciousness of time. And Simplicio adds that the Sardinians went to the tombs of the heroes to sleep long undisturbed sleeps, resembling precisely those heroes who seemed to sleep and were dead. Incubation was therefore intended to drive away terrifying apparitions, nightmares, visions. To remove any doubt about it, Tertullian affirms that there is mention in Aristotle of a hero from Sardinia, who freed those who slept near his sanctuary from visions.” According to the archaeologist Paolo Melis (“Civiltà Nuragica”), near the tombs of the giants “complex funeral rites were carried out in honor of the deceased, which probably did not limit themselves to the moment of deposition but were repeated multiple times at certain moments or anniversaries: in fact, in Nuragic religion, the cult of the heroized and divinized ancestors held great importance, as some classical authors tell us, who recall the custom of the Sardinians to sleep near the tombs of their ancestors for magical and therapeutic purposes. Right in the front exedra of the tombs of giants, it seems possible to recognize the space intended for these ritual incubations.” Finally, it is read in a “brebu”: “A su mancu una borta in sa vida bàndidi s’homini in galazzoni; scetti in custu viaggiu d’ogniunu ada connosci sa beridadi” (At least once in life, a man should go into a trance <shamanic trance, which is not a state of hallucination but a state of ‘higher presence’> Only with this ‘journey’ <spiritual experience> can everyone know the truth <communicate directly with the world of the dead, the spirits>.”
In the images, the Tombs of the Giants of: S’Ena ‘e Thomes in Dorgali (ph. Gianni Sirigu, Nicola Castangia, Francesca Cossu); San Cosimo in Gonnosfanadiga (ph. Lucia Corda and Maurizio Cossu); Seleni in Lanusei (ph. Nuraviganne); S’Arena Fennau in Urzulei (ph. Maurizio Cossu and Alessandro Pilia). The painting “The Sleep” is by Salvador Dalì.
